A fire erupted Thursday morning at a data center in Hillsboro, Oregon, which is leased by Elon Musk’s X company. Firefighters were dispatched to the scene shortly after 10:21 AM, discovering that the blaze originated in a room containing batteries. According to Hillsboro Fire and Rescue spokesperson Piseth Pich, while the fire was contained and did not spread beyond that room, smoke was thick in the area. Fire crews remained on-site until around 3:00 PM to ensure the situation was fully under control.
X has not provided a comment regarding the incident, and it remains unclear whether the fire impacted the data center’s server operations. Historically, prior to Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now X), the company managed data centers in Sacramento, Portland, and Atlanta to ensure resilience and handle traffic more efficiently. However, after reducing costs, X closed its Sacramento facility around Christmas 2022, resulting in service disruptions just months later as server racks were transferred to the remaining centers in Portland and Atlanta.
The Hillsboro facility is reportedly leased through Digital Realty, a major data center developer, though it’s unclear if X shares the building with other tenants. Ryan Young, a vice president at Digital Realty, stated that the fire incident was contained with no injuries reported, and personnel were evacuated safely. The company’s current focus is on ensuring safety and monitoring any further developments.
Battery rooms are typically used as backup power sources for data centers, but lithium-ion batteries are known for their volatility, and issues with them have caused fires at several facilities globally. Pich observed that this incident was unique, as he could not recall any previous battery-related fires in Oregon’s data centers.
In addition to this fire incident, X’s parent company, xAI, faced scrutiny over its rapid expansion of power capacity at another data center in Memphis, leading to concerns about environmental impacts and local air quality.
For more information on the event, you can check the links to Elon Musk’s ventures: X and xAI.
